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UC College of Medicine Honors Exceptional Researchers

Published: 11/16/2017

The College of Medicine celebrated its research successes and
congratulated key contributors during the Research Recognition
Program Wednesday, Nov. 15, 2017, in the CARE/Crawley Atrium.
During the event, faculty members within the college were
recognized for their research excellence and contributions in five
distinguished categories or as a member of the Gallery of
Awardees/Significant Clinical Trialist Program, which have been
announced throughout the fiscal year 2017. Remarks were offered by
College of Medicine leadership: Dean William Ball, MD, Melanie
Cushion, PhD, senior associate dean for research and Brett Kissela,
MD, senior associate dean for clinical research and chief of
research services at UC Health.

Those being recognized include:

John Morris, MD, a
professor in the Division of Hematology Oncology in the Department
of Internal Medicine, was presented the Clinical Trialist of the
Year award. That honor goes to the investigator with exceptional
financial support for clinical trials and Morris has brought in
more than $1 million in revenue. Morris is the director of
experimental therapeutics program that provides new cancer
treatment options in phase I clinical trials. He is also
co-director of the Comprehensive Lung Cancer Center and associate
director for Translational Research at the UC Cancer Institute.
Morris is investigating a lung cancer vaccine as well as stem cell
and other innovative therapies for treatment of lung cancer.

Michael Tranter, PhD,
assistant professor in the Division of Cardiovascular Health and
Disease, is the recipient of the 2017 Research Rising Star Award.
Tranter completed his PhD in Molecular, Cellular and Biochemical
Pharmacology at UC in 2010 along with a two-year postdoctoral
fellowship in UC’s Department of Pharmacology and Cell
Biophysics. He joined the Division of Cardiovascular Health and
Disease as a faculty member in 2012. Tranter’s research
focuses on the mechanistic role of Human Antigen R (HuR) during the
development and progression of pathological cardiac hypertrophy.
Tranter’s work has been funded by an American Heart
Association Scientist Development Grant and an R01 from the
National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute of the National Institutes
of Health to study HuR as a novel mediator of cardiac hypertrophy.
He also received an NIH-NCAI sub-award and a UC Technology
Commercialization Accelerator Grant to commercialize a bioassay for
detecting RNA-protein binding along with numerous internal
grants.

Four faculty were recognized for their accomplishments as
Mid-Career Research Scientists and they include:
Aimin Chen, MD, PhD; Timothy
Pritts, MD, PhD;Thomas Thompson, PhD; and
Theresa Winhusen,
PhD.

Chen is an associate
professor in the Department of Environmental Health and his
research focuses on chemicals exposure and child health. He is a
key collaborator of the Health Outcomes for Measurement of the
Environment (HOME) study established with a Children’s
Environmental Health Center grant in 2001 awarded by the National
Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and the Environmental
Protection Agency. His focus in the HOME study is mainly on flame
retardants exposure and child neurobehavioral outcomes. Chen is
also considered an expert on informal electronic waste recycling in
developing countries for mixture exposures, health outcomes and
prevention efforts.

Pritts is a professor and
chief of the section of general surgery in the Department of
Surgery. He completed his MD at Northwestern University’s
Feinberg School of Medicine. This was followed by a general surgery
residency, PhD in Molecular and Cellular Physiology, and Surgical
Critical Care Fellowship at UC. His clinical interests are broad
based general and trauma surgery. His research interests revolve
around improving resuscitation and care for the traumatically
injured and bleeding patient.

Thompson is a professor in
the Department of Molecular Genetics, Biochemistry and
Microbiology. He oversees the Thompson Laboratory which focuses on
two areas of investigation: the study of the structural and
functional aspects of TGFbeta family signaling and regulation along
with structures of apolipoproteins and how this relates to HDL
particles and other related biological functions. The laboratory
uses a combination of structural techniques including X-ray
crystallography, small angle X-ray scattering coupled with
biophysical and biochemical experiments.

Winhusen is a professor in
the Division of Addiction Sciences in the Department of Psychiatry
and Behavioral Neuroscience. She is one of the foremost experts in
conducting multi-site addiction clinical trials in community
practice settings, having been the national principal investigator
for five multi-site clinical trials in the National Institute of
Drug Abuse (NIDA)’s clinical trials network since 2001.
Winhusen has conducted NIDA-funded research to identify effective
substance abuse treatments with a particular emphasis on treating
tobacco and stimulant use disorders and has been awarded more than
$12.4 million dollars in NIH funding.

Research service awards were also presented to
Ken Greis, PhD, professor
in the Department of Cancer Biology and
Jerry Lingrel, PhD,
professor in the Department of Molecular Genetics, Biochemistry and
Microbiology. The honors are given to faculty who serve the College
of Medicine research mission by volunteering for internal review
panels, data and safety monitoring boards, the institutional
revenue board, the institutional animal care and use committee and
biosafety and radiation safety boards.

Lingrel chairs the conflict
of interest committee for the university. He also helps
support first year medical students to work on research during the
summer. Lingrel has also served as the interim chair of the
Department of Cancer Biology and the Department of Molecular
Genetics, Biochemistry and Microbiology which he founded. He
is a University of Cincinnati Distinguished Research
Professor.

Greis directs the
Proteomics and Mass Spectrometry Laboratory and the Graduate
Program in Cancer and Cell Biology. During the past year he
co-chaired the committee to update and modernize the College of
Medicine ARPT guidelines and led a subcommittee for organization
and planning of Research Week. He also regularly facilitates
case studies for Ethics in Research along with organizing and
teaching faculty mentoring workshops.

This year’s Team Science Research Award was presented to
the Laryngeal Biomechanics Laboratory. Members of team are
Sid Khosla, MD, associate
professor in the Department of Otolaryngology Head and Neck
Surgery;
Ephraim Gutmark, PhD,
Distinguished Professor and Ohio Eminent Scholar in the Department
of Aerospace Engineering;
Liran Oren, PhD, research
assistant professor in the Department of Otolaryngology Head and
Neck Surgery; and
Jun Ying, PhD, professor in
the Department of Environmental Health. The focus and uniqueness of
the research group is the use of advance modeling and simulations
techniques (developed for aerospace engineering) to study
mechanisms in airway, speech, and voice disorders.